The Queue: Oops

Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.

I won't lie. I almost forgot to write The Queue today. It's not my fault. It really isn't. Blame Jimmy Raynor and his bedamned Hyperion. It's completely his fault. Actually ... on second thought, blame Tychus Findlay. He's a better scapegoat.

Now to distract you from what could have been a horrible error ... Have you all entered our contest for a Blazing Hippogryph yet? You can enter once per day, remember! Head over there, leave a comment to enter and show WoWTCGLoot.com a little love. They're the guys who make these giveaways possible.

Josh asked:
"Can you give the non-beta testers a feel for the completion of Cataclysm so far? Will they make the 2010 deadline?"

That's a difficult question to answer because we don't know exactly what the developers still have left to do, just a vague idea of what we think they need to do. We also don't know how much of the incomplete content is mostly done on their end but we can't see yet, or how much of the back-end work is done, with whatever remains for X, Y and Z feature being only aesthetic. I'll try to answer anyway, though.

I do think they will have a finished product before the end of 2010. There are a lot things that still need polish and finishing touches, but I don't think it's five months' worth. A vast majority of the zone revamps are done. The goblin starting experience is done (or feels done), and the worgen one is mostly done. About half of the level cap zones are complete, including non-raid instances (I believe), and we're seeing finishing touches being put on a lot of the classes. The guild leveling features aren't done, but there are a whole lot more of them in the game now than there were just a month ago. If a 2010 release wasn't in the stars, I don't think we would even be in the beta right now.

I could be wrong, because we simply don't have all of the necessary knowledge to make that call. But I do think we'll see a late 2010 release, possibly right before BlizzCon. Then Blizzard could use BlizzCon as an opportunity to tease the first major content patch.

shawrk asked:
"Is there any basis to the rumor that the only people getting beta invites also have authenticators?"

It's not true at all. I know people who are in the beta without authenticators. Though you should really have one anyway if they're available in your region!
arixian asked:
"Has the Gilnean crest been revealed yet?"

Yes, but it's kind of lame.

arixian also asked:
"Will the Alliance crest be updated to include elements from the draenei and the Gilneans?"

I do not know the answer to this one. Sorry!

jishdefish asked:
"When is WoW.com going to run another live beta stream?"

They're taking names and kicking ass in the Plaguelands. They've taken over most of the Scarlet Crusade's territory and made it their own. They've also taken over those silly PvP towers that the Alliance and the Horde have been bickering over for years now. Tirion Fordring is still kicking around and calls Hearthglen home, which is the place where you used to be able to find his son Taelen. He has also constructed another statue of himself.

Stupid Tirion.Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!